And We Drank From The Desert's Stars

One

She was eight years old when they rescued her.

Juniper was the first to notice when they were stopping in one of the many deserted towns to ravage for food that there was a lump of a body on the ground.

"Dad!" She yelled, from the back of the wagon, making her three brother's heads turn first.

"What is it?" her father, Kurt, asked, approaching on his horse slowly. The blonde girl pointed my thin finger to the lump, and he frowned. "I'll check it out, you guys stay here," he said quietly. He kicked the side of his horse into a trot towards the body- one hand on the reins, and the other sliding slowly to his thigh, where his compact pistol stuck. It was risky to check it out, but he had to- Juniper's father stressed that they should never leave anyone behind.

The minutes felt like hours, but finally her dad raised his hand, "Come on over here," he called, and they moved the wagon towards him. When they reached him, he had dismounted and reached out. He was talking softly, and Juniper wondered why, until she saw a small, dark hand reach out also, and soon he was pulling a child from behind the lump. She was small, and had dark-skin, with dark frizzy hair. When dad brought her closer though, Juniper could see that she had bright blue eyes.

They thought her name was Addaline at first, but she kept correcting them, until she finally wrote it down in the hard clay- Ottaline. She didn't talk much, but she seemed to have an attraction to Juniper. This lead Juniper to realize it was because when they passed the body, she realized it was a blonde woman lying on the ground- a bullet wound just above her left eye.

Juniper wasn't fond of the fact at the time, being sixteen and a young girl trying to claim her as her mother already- but her dad told her she should be happy she finally got a little sister.

Because now, whoever is with you is your family- no matter the skin color.

______

At first, Jason- Juniper's younger brother who is now 14- rode the wagon horses while Ottaline and Juniper hung out inside the wagon. Then her two eldest brothers, Erik now at age 20 and Mayson now at age 23, rode their own separate horses with their dad. She had been the only girl for a while, until finally Ottaline came along. Juniper felt normal once again- another girl, someone to sew frilly clothes for, and someone to read books with and to talk about others things- other than gun handling, roping, and whatever else those boys talked about endlessly. It wasn't that she was girly; it was just that it got tiring being "one of the boys".

Finally, now that Juniper was 18, my dad went and found me a horse. She was wild, but her brothers were 'pros' at breaking in the horses, so for now it stayed tied at the back of the wagon while they traveled.

"Why don't I get a horse?" Ottaline asked, with that crispy voice of hers. She was going to be 10 soon, and Juniper felt already that she was aging too much. Juniper was running a comb roughly through her hair, trying to calm it down. "I don't know, I didn't get one until now, either. I think he's scared we can't handle ourselves- Jason, Erik, and Mayson all know everything there is to know about guns and protecting us," Juniper whispered softly. Ottaline's poor head had gotten used to her rough handy-work on it, so now she let her braid it tightly. As she got older, it straightened a bit and wasn't as unruly, but still seemed to be tight curls. She preferred it braided.

Juniper didn't tell her about the rapes and murders, about how women were taken and beaten. She was too young- it was already bad enough she witnessed her mother's death. Juniper hoped Ottaline never had to see what she had.

"I wish I had hair like you, Juniper," she whispered when Juniper was done, turning to run her fingers into her light blonde hair, and she smiled weakly. "It's so straight."